Trump Announces Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he will sign an executive order to create a task force that will "eradicate anti-Christian bias" from the federal government.
The 45th and 47th president made the announcement at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., adding that Attorney General Pam Bondi will lead the task force in rooting out "anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government."
"To confront such weaponization and religious persecution, today I am signing an executive order to make our attorney general, who's a great person -- she's gonna be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi -- the head of a task force, brand new, to eradicate anti-Christian bias," he said.
"The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI -- terrible -- and other agencies," he continued.
Trump added that the task force will "fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide." Trump previously promised at the 52nd annual March for Life in January to have the DOJ investigate the hundreds of pro-abortion attacks on churches and pregnancy centers that occurred following the leak of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022.
"If we don't have religious liberty, then we don't have a free country -- we probably don't even have a country," he said.
Republicans spent four years sounding the alarm on the Biden administration using its resources to target Christians repeatedly. One of the most striking incidents was the FBI's investigation into "radical traditionalist" Catholics, followed by the aggressive prosecution of praying pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Trump notably pardoned nearly two dozen pro-lifers within the first week of his presidency.
Some other examples include the Biden administration arguing in the Supreme Court that the Constitution allows for states to exclude Christian schools from tuition aid programs. Biden's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also denied a Christian non-profit its tax exempt status, saying, "The Bible's teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican Party and candidates." The IRS later reversed its decision after receiving pressure from Republican lawmakers. The Biden administration also targeted faith-based foster and adoption agencies, and worked to make people with religious and conscience objections facilitate abortions and take the COVID-19 vaccine, among other violations.
RELATED: Exclusive -- Rep. Ralph Norman: Biden Administration 'at War with All Faith-Based Agencies'
Trump additionally said he will create a presidential commission on religious liberty that "will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right."
"While I'm in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares," Trump said. "And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God."
